It has previously been proposed to keep track of vehicular construction equipment and the like by providing the vehicles with transponders receiving GPS location information and supplying the same via an Internet web page, or otherwise, to the equipment owner. Currently, for example, transponder and communications link equipment for effecting such operation is offered by Orbcomm USA limited partnership company, of the satellite provider Orbital Sciences Corp. The Caterpillar Company is also believed similarly to monitor such information and, through appropriate sensor(s) at the equipment, indicating also such utilization information as run-time to enable the timely Orbcomm offering of spare parts.
The present invention, however, is more specifically concerned with providing continuing information to fleet owners, such as construction companies, or those who rent for utilization by customers, by more fully remotely sensing the equipment utilization and operating condition data, run hours, fuel level, battery voltage, engine pressure, water level and other conditions, --sufficient, indeed, when processed, to enable the owners or managers to monitor and improve the efficiency of utilization of their high capital cost equipment, or to enable the equipment renter adequately to bill for all the use that actually occurs and, additionally, to minimize the downtime in rental contracts. The invention also enables supplying anticipatory maintenance and fuel requirement information--insuring against run out or over supply--and monitoring for inefficient, abusive or unauthorized locational usage--on site too early or too long, or unauthorizedly moved or used after hours, or off site--in short, providing managers, through appropriate software signal processing and upon user-friendly displays, with information needed to operate the fleets more efficiently by reducing expenses or increasing rental revenue.
While preferably using Internet linking, moreover, the invention enables the transponders provided on the vehicular equipment to send information to the satellite, which relays responses to a ground station and over the Internet to an information processing-service-providing headquarters or center which, in turn, processes the information and provides such, again as by way of the Internet or otherwise, to the fleet manager or other customer.
The invention provides the facility, moreover, in addition to providing such information reports on a standard mode of reporting schedule, say daily, for example, to enable the customer to request of the headquarters a special report at any time (a so-called-interrogation or express-inquiry mode), wherein a headquarters center requests the ground station to send a signal to the satellite to trigger the transponder for such a special report. And, as earlier mentioned, the invention may further provide operation in an alarm mode, sensitive to unauthorized conditions, such as the moving or use of the equipment after hours or at another site, and the like, and triggering the transponders.
Thus, while not a real-time tracking system, the system of the invention can adequately provide the fleet manager with all the basic information needed remotely to track and monitor the operation of the fleet and to improve efficiency of equipment utilization and operation. In addition, the facility is provided for the manager to select or request different options on limits or information parameters or items for selective display, and such may be discriminatingly color-coded on the display.